About

Please Entertain This Thought –

And enjoy reading the theatre reviews of Mary Alderson

Mary has been a fan of live theatre since her first visit to the Stratford Festival as a child, where she saw Christopher Walken and Louise Marleau in Romeo and Juliet. As a teenager, she had a summer job at the Grand Bend Tourist Information booth. Huron Country Playhouse founder James Murphy gave her free tickets to his inaugural season so she could promote it to visitors. She has a vivid memory of sitting in a tent on a folding chair, with her feet up on the seat in front of her, to avoid the rivulets of rain flowing through the mud and gravel towards the stage. Unfortunately, the productions that summer were less memorable, but improved greatly over the ensuing years.

Mary holds a B.A. in Honours English and an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Western Ontario, London. After graduation, Mary was a reporter for the Exeter Times-Advocate and reviewed shows at Huron Country Playhouse.

This website is home to all Mary’s theatre reviews. She welcomes visitors to return to Entertain This Thoughtregularly – after each opening night, a new review will be posted. From May to September, Mary goes to at least one show a week – sometimes two and three. From October to April, she slows it down to a show every other week, but usually sees about 60 shows per year. In addition to the ongoing supply of new reviews, there are over 600 reviews posted in the Archives pages.

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Mary and her husband, Victor, live in Grand Bend, Ontario. Victor is an artist who paints in oil and acrylic. As well, he creates driftwood boats and scenic photography. All his works are available at The Gallery on Main Street, in the sunroom at 14 Main Street, in Grand Bend. Their daughter Chelsey is a social worker. She and her husband, Jonathan, make their home in Durham Region. Their son Thomas is a professional actor/singer/dancer. He graduated from the Music Theatre Performance Program at Sheridan College, Oakville, receiving the Triple Threat Award in 2009. It was Thomas’ work in theatre that re-kindled Mary’s interest in writing reviews. Thomas’ credits include a North American tour as Mordred in Camelot, as well as Tommy Djilas in The Music Man, The Artful Dodger in Oliver!, Gordon in A New Brain, and Charlie in Brigadoon. With Drayton Entertainment, he has appeared in High School Musical in Grand Bend, Penetanguishene & St. Jacobs, in Hairspray in St. Jacobs and Grand Bend, and played Bud Frump in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, in Grand Bend and Drayton. He was in White Christmas at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, and in 2012, he was swing in La Cage aux Folles at The Neptune Theatre in Halifax. In 2013, he was in Anne of Green Gables at Theatre Calgary, Spamalot at Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend and St. Jacobs Country Playhouse, Lend Me a Tenor at Cambridge’s new Dunfield Theatre and then back to St. Jacobs Country Playhouse for White Christmas. In 2014, he was Robertson Aye, the butler in Mary Poppins at Halifax’s Neptune Theatre, and appeared in Footloose in St. Jacobs and Little Mermaid in Cambridge. He is David Martin in the movie “Stage Fright”, a horror-musical-comedy musical starring Meat Loaf and Minnie Driver. He has also filmed several episodes of the children’s TV show, The Odd Squad, as a member of the boy band, SoundCheck. He was part of the cast of Kinky Boots at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, 2015-16. Most recently, he has moved into directing, and has worked as an Assistant Director on Saturday Night Fever for the North American Tour and Mirvish, Once at London’s Grand Theatre, The Secret Garden at Theatre Calgary and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver.